1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display control apparatus and method, particularly relates to a technique of controlling display of temperature information in an apparatus including a cooling fan.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as cameras dedicated to media production represented by film shooting cameras, 35-mm film cameras have been replaced by digital video cameras (to be simply referred to as cameras hereinafter). Such cameras dedicated to media production are characterized by using a large-size CMOS sensor and processing a high-resolution video.
In such camera, the degree of integration of a circuit has increased while the camera has been downsized to reduce the cost and improve the usability, thereby causing a big problem associated with heat generation. Many cameras dissipate heat by including a fan as a measure against heat generation. However, the sound is often recorded during moving image shooting. Therefore, if the fan operates, its sound is unwantedly recorded as well.
To solve this problem, as a measure against noise, some cameras automatically control the operation of a fan based on the internal temperature of the camera or start/stop of a recording operation. Since the user of such camera may not want its fan to rotate, it is required to provide a way of notifying the user that the fan has started to rotate.
On the other hand, even if the fan is automatically controlled, it unwantedly operates under a given condition. At a shooting site where silence is of utmost importance, therefore, it is necessary to monitor the internal temperature of the camera so that the fan does not operate. As a method of monitoring the internal temperature of a camera, for example, an icon is displayed on a display device included in the camera. By switching the icon in stages according to the internal temperature of the camera, it becomes possible to use the camera while monitoring the internal temperature so that the fan does not operate. A threshold for displaying such icon should be determined based on the rising characteristic of the internal temperature of the camera or a temperature at which the operation of the camera is guaranteed such as the temperature limit of an IC as a constituent component of the camera.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-287111 discloses a technique in which a camera which automatically operates its fan in case where the internal temperature of the camera reaches a predetermined temperature displays an indicator before operating the fan, thereby giving the user a notice concerning the start of the fan in advance.
If the user is only given a notice in advance as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-287111, it is difficult for the user, who does not want the fan to operate, to manage the camera by himself/herself not to rotate the fan. It is, therefore, required to display detailed information of the internal temperature of the camera. On the other hand, since a threshold for displaying a rise in internal temperature of the camera and a threshold for controlling the rotation operation of the fan should be set to optimized temperatures, respectively, these two thresholds are probably completely different from each other. If, therefore, a rise in internal temperature is displayed independently of the operation of the fan, the user may feel that the fan operation and the display are incongruous.